Locking down Heathfield

Earlier this term, the Heathfield Community College and Sixth Form took part in a lockdown drill.

The bell rang repeatedly, doors were locked and the blinds were pulled down. The procedure went very smoothly (and wasn’t as exciting as people made out it would be; we just carried on doing our work). There has been a lot of speculation throughout the college about the drill, so The Vine spoke to Mr Howard to ask him to explain what it was all about.

So why did we do it? Mr Howard explained: “We were asked by East Sussex Police to do the drill and see if we were able to lockdown the college and do a roll call.”

As a matter of fact, the drill went very well and proved to us that the school can be locked down if that situation was ever necessary. There was no specific situation the school was preparing us or taking caution for - it was really just a matter of whether we could successfully lockdown the school, and finding put which areas could be improved if need be. Thanks to the assembly we had, notifying us of what the bell meant, everyone knew how to react and what they would have to do if they happened to be in a situation where they weren’t in a classroom. It was very helpful to us to feel this prepared for the drill, and made the process a lot less worrying.

A letter was also sent home to our parents to notify them of the lockdown drill; this probably didn’t come as a surprise to them, as many schools in the area had also been practising the procedure. It wouldn’t shock me if out of all the schools in our area, Heathfield Community College performed the best. Pupils were sensible and mature, which means that if we were ever in this type of unlikely situation, we would be able to perform the drill in an efficient and practical way.

As a school community, both students and staff, we have all been able to demonstrate a calm procedure that ran smoothly, and we should all be very proud of that.